▲ Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team, speaks during a plenary meeting at the committee's headquarters in Seoul on March 21, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

transition team-antiviral drug

Transition team discusses domestic production of Paxlovid

SEOUL, March 22 (Yonhap) -- The government should consider asking Pfizer whether it would be possible to produce copies of its COVID-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid in South Korea in exchange for royalties, the chairman of the transition team said Tuesday.

Ahn Cheol-soo said the possibility was discussed during a meeting of the transition team's special COVID-19 committee the previous day.

"We're experiencing a severe shortage of Paxlovid and other oral treatment pills," he said during a press briefing. "It's possible we will completely run out in April."

Ahn is a licensed medical doctor and doubles as chief of both the transition team and the COVID-19 committee.

"With Paxlovid, it's never been done before, but there's a need to sound out the possibility of asking the manufacturer whether we can pay a royalty for the patent and make copies in the country," he said.

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